Elizabeth House

October 3rd, 2008 by Taylor Jackson

Today I headed out with Julia one of the other volunteers that lives in the guesthouse to the outskirts of Mukono Town to the project she is working at. The Elizabeth House is just the most amazing project. It is a home and school for mentally and physically disabled kids; it was started by David and Val who both came to visit the school today. They I think are from Australia and raised the money to build the run the school through their church.

Each kid has quite the story and I took tons of pictures that I can’t wait to show you when I get back. One of them Sarah is 7 and a half but actually has the body of a large newborn. She has cerebral palsy and when they found her they didn’t think she would make it another month. Grace another girl with I think malaria induced palsy is 13 and looks like she’s maybe 9. Grace is in a wheelchair; she can’t speak, and can barely understand. She was raped by I think they said her Uncle I might be wrong though, and was pregnant when Val found her. Everyone agrees that it is a miracle she survived the birth of her daughter because she is so tiny and has very little muscle control.

We started the day working on numbers in their workbooks; all the kids really need individual attention because their needs are so different so all the help they get is needed. Then we had snack, a lot of the kids can eat by themselves but I fed Maureen a fourteen year old girl, and Julia fed Nicolas the cutest kid. Nicolas’s story is especially sad because he would have been perfectly normal, physically if he had been taken to a doctor sooner when he first caught malaria, now he has malaria induced palsy.

We massaged the kids that are in wheelchairs after that which took us basically until lunch. Then we played and read books the rest of the day. It was really something else, to think that most of the kids were found locked in cupboards, behind couches and malnourished and where they would be today without the Elizabeth House.